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‘Asian American women a growing presence on police forces’

Samantha Oh is the first Asian American* woman to join the Bergen County (NJ) sheriff’s office. Female officers make up approximately ten percent of the New Jersey police force. (I’d be interested if anybody has stats on the demographic composition.)

I remember my shock the first time I saw an Asian American (male) police officer in my neighborhood, which had a large Asian American population. And here it is 2012 and we’re still encountering “firsts.”

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4 thoughts on “‘Asian American women a growing presence on police forces’”

I’m interested to know why you dislike the hyphen in the adjective form of Asian American. I think it’s important to respect people’s preferences for the words that describe their identities, so I respect your request to spell it without the hyphen. But given that any other multi-word phrase should be hyphenated when it’s used to modify another noun like that, why take the hyphen out of this one phrase?

Ex:
He’s the second generation in his family to graduate from college.
He’s a second-generation college graduate.

It took my a few clicks to find the reasoning behind the hyphen or lack thereof (though found the suggestion for modern use more quickly). Interesting though.

Wikipedia’s “Hyphenated American” article:
“Some groups recommend dropping the hyphen because it implies to some people dual nationalism and inability to be accepted as truly American. The Japanese American Citizens League is supportive of dropping the hyphen because the non-hyphenated form uses their ancestral origin as an adjective for “American.”[9]
By contrast, other groups have embraced the hyphen, arguing that the American identity is compatible with alternative identities and that the mixture of identities within the United States strengthens the nation rather than weakens it.”

Are you looking for the demographic composition of the Bergen County Sheriff’s department, or the demographic composition of NJ State Police? They’re two different, unrelated law enforcement organizations.